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1 - Introduction: Consoling Anguish and Making It Worse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2021

David H. Kelsey
David H. Kelsey
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
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Summary

Persons anguished by others’ suffering are often enraged by problematic pastoral consolation suggesting that God “sent” the suffering “for a purpose,” “according to a plan.” This book shows why such suggestions are problematic from a Christian theological perspective. It is “Christian” in that it assumes that what we say about God should be rooted in the way God relates to all else as that is narrated in three strands of canonical Christian Scripture read through the lens of Jesus’ life-trajectory, which itself warrants a Trinitarian account of “what” and “who” the powerful God is.

Keywords

anguishpastorally problematictheologically problematicGod’s powermovement of the rgument
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Human Anguish and God's Power , pp. 1 - 16
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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